Chicago Red Stars V Portland Thorns (Photo by Don Mac Gregor 3-31-18).
Chicago Red Stars 2-3 Portland Thorns
BRIDGEVIEW, IL—On the road, Portland was able to breeze past Chicago for a 3-2 victory behind Christine Sinclair’s brace and a goal from Linsdey Horan at Toyota Park on Saturday night. While the Red Stars got a pair of goals off the leg of Alyssa Mautz.
“We’re really pleased on a windy night and the players put in a really good performance,” Portland Thorns coach Mark Parsons said. “We put in a lot of hard work and good moments off quality as well. We liked the win and three points It get’s us off and running and we get to go home now.
Coming into the match the Red Stars (0-1-1) were with several of its starters because of injuries and International play. But the Thorns (1-1) still have to come out with a pretty good scoring output.
“A lot of teams around the league are missing a few international players at the moment,” Parsons added. “We have some players that are not with us as well. There’s other players that get the opportunity to be on the field for them. Just really pleased that our players performed so well. If any advantage, we took advantage of that and made it count.”
For Chicago, it was their home opener after taking a 1-1 draw in its season opener in Houston last weekend.
“I thought we were significantly better then we were last week,” Chicago head coach Rory Dames said. “All the players that played tonight get paid to play on this team. I’m not going to talk about the players that didn’t play because that will disrespect the players that did play.
“I think the problem isn’t the effort to come back. The problem is that were set to play with that kind of urgency to get commitment to get forward, when were not losing and that’s something were going to have to continue growing into. (Portland) is really good on dead balls and if your going to give it to them, then your going to get punished and we did.”
Horan scored her first goal of he season and put the Thorns up 1-0 in the ninth minute of play off a Meghan Klingenberg cornerkick. Horan collected the ball in the penalty area and placed it into the top right corner.
Mautz scored her first of two tying the match at 1-1 in the 31st minute. She got a shot off that deflected off a Thorn’s defender into the goal.
In the 41st minute, Portland took over the lead at 2-1. Sinclair applied some pressure in back and took the ball away from the Red Stars keeper Alyssa Naeher and scored into an open net.
Sinclair earned another opportunity in the second half by scoring on a penalty kick in the 65th minute. That after the Red Stars defender was whistled for handling the ball in the penalty area in the 65th minute.
The Red Stars responded to get a goal back two minutes later. Mautz found the back of the net off a pass from Sofia Huerta that cut the margin to 3-2. But they couldn’t get another in the remaining minutes.
Chicago will have a week off before visiting Utah Royals on Saturday, April 14th at 2:30pm CT, while Portland will next host Orlando on Sunday, April 15th at 3pm PT.
SCORING SUMMARY:
POR-Lindsey Horan (Meghan Klingenberg) 9
CHI-Alyssa Mautz (Summer Green) 31
POR-Christine Sinclair (UNA) 41
POR-Christine Sinclair (PK) 65
CHI-Alyssa Mautz (Sofia Huerta) 67
BOOKING SUMMARY:
POR-Celeste Boureille (caution, reckless foul) 58
CHI-Danielle Colaprico (caution, hand ball) 64
CHICAGO RED STARS (4-3-3): #1-Alyssa Naeher, #14-Sarah Gordon, #16-Samantha Johnson, #5-Kathleen Naughton, #7-Taylor Comeau, #11-Soffia Huerta, #24-Danielle Colaprico, #2-Nikki Stanton (#25-Erin Yenny 85) , #19-Summer Green (#15-Michele Vasconcelos 80), #3-Arin Gilliland, #4-Alyssa Mautz
Subs not used: #21-Emily Boyd, #13-Lauren Kaskie,
PORTLAND THORNS (3-4-3): #24-Adrianna Franch, #20-Kelli Hubly, #16-Emily Sonnett, #2-Katherine Reynolds, #25-Meghan Klingenberg, #10-Lindsey Horan, #30-Celeste Boureille, #23-Margaret Purce (#36-Angela Salem 93), #12-Christine Sinclair, #34-Tyler Lussi (#22-Ifeoma Onumonu 46), #26-Mallori Weber (#27-Elizabeth Ball 72)
Subs not used: #33-Britt Eckerstrom, #36-Angela Salem, #39-Sandra Yu
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 12-14 POR
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 3-5 POR
FOULS: CHI 11-7 POR
OFFSIDES: CHI 0-5 POR
CORNER KICKS: CHI 3-3 POR
SAVES: CHI 2-1 POR
Referee: Greg Dopka
Assistant Referees: Gjovalin Bori, Jeffrey Swartzel
Fourth Official: Ethan Buege
Weather: Windy and 44º
Attendance: 13,678
Woman of the Match: Christine Sinclair (PORT)
